Ishant Sharma may only have a modest 34 wickets from 11 Tests, but the sight of his smooth run-up and flowing hair has captured the country’s imagination this series. Our correspondents trace the making of India’s new pace hopeSeveral years ago, the cricketers of Ganga International School in Delhi couldn’t understand their coach Shravan Kumar’s obsession with a recently-drafted, tall, gawky pacer. As the whispering campaign against the erratic bowler with a no-ball problem and a stop-start run-up grew louder, Shravan would often get to hear, “Sir has picked him again!” But despite this small resistance, the coach would have an all-knowing smile as he threw the new ball to his pet without a hint of guilt.Little did the Ganga International boys know that one day they would be flaunting their proximity to that unwanted member of their team. The beanpole-framed bowler has now made a mark in world cricket, and his early colleagues end up dropping his name to spice up stories about their modest initial cricketing days.Luckily for Ishant, coach Shravan could foresee a bright future for the boy with obvious technical flaws. “One day, Ishant came to the school team’s net session and said that he wanted to bowl. I gave him an old ball,” recalls Shravan. Going by the first delivery, he would’ve been rejected by most coaches on the school circuit. “There was no rhythm in his run-up and he released the ball from a foot outside the bowling crease. The ball bounced way outside the line of the stumps and went on to hit the metal pole that supported the net,” says Shravan.But the coach says he filtered out two aspects of this horribly wrong first ball. “The first was his pace, and the second was the height at which the ball hit the pole. All I needed to do was polish him without compromising on his speed and his ability to get bounce.”A lot has changed since the day Ishant hit the metal pole during his audition. Today, he has one of the smoothest run-ups in world cricket, his first balls are usually on the coin, he is already getting known for his long spells, and the sound is of the ball hitting the timber, never metal. It’s a combination of these attributes that makes former Aussie captain Ian Chappell call Ishant the most promising young bowler in the world today.Fragile worldIn the fragile world of pace bowlers, early promise doesn’t guarantee long-term success. There are too may examples — home and away — of quick bowlers who were either slowed down by injuries or figured out by batsmen. But, barely a year old in international cricket, one thing in Ishant’s favour is that he already looks like a finished product. He has bowled on dead tracks and come out of the battle with his reputation enhanced. His 34 wickets from 11 Tests don’t really suggest that he had a breathtaking international debut, but it’s his one-sided duels with Ricky Ponting that have caught the imagination of the country.In the last three Tests that India won — Perth, Galle and Mohali — Sharma was a significant contributor, and with the left-handed spearhead Zaheer Khan, forms a combination that experts feel could continue the global tradition of pacers hunting in pairs.His first Ranji captain Mithun Manhas can’t forget the 21-over unchanged spell that Ishant bowled against Andhra in Vijaywada to save Delhi. “I was not on field because I was dehydrated after scoring a ton, so you can understand the temperature and humidity. Of the 21 overs he bowled, 11 were maidens. That was an outstanding spell,” he says.As if guilty of over-using Ishant, Manhas adds: “It’s very tempting when you have a bowler like Ishant, who is a wicket-taking bowler but has the ability to bowl tirelessly. Whenever things are not going your way, there’s an inclination to toss the ball to him and say: ‘Get me a wicket.’”Bowling machineOne goes back to Shravan to understand how Ishant built his stamina during those Ganga International days. “I don’t know if it’s termed proper or not, but I have a simple rule for my pacers — they have to bowl for three hours at the nets. I think that’s the only way one can become a top-flight cricketer. It’s easy to go flat out for one hour and most youngsters can do it,” says the old-school coach. But in junior circuit, things were tough for Ishant since every other day was a match day. “He played for his school, club, age-cricket and, time permitting, even tennis-ball games. Within a year, he played his first state match, in two years he had played all junior cricket, and in the third year he was making his first-class debut,” he says.Lalchand Rajput was in-charge of the India under-19 team when Ishant got the first feel of alien conditions. “Wherever he bowled, he had the same intensity. He never had the casual approach that many youngsters in that team had,” says Rajput.Delhi bowler Amit Bhandari can’t forget the day in Rajkot when Ishant got a call from South Africa to join the Indian team. “He was in my room and we were talking about his big break. That’s when we came to know that the news was false. I thought the kid would be shattered,” recalls Bhandari.“I tried to pep him up by saying that he just had to perform at the domestic level so that next time the call came, he could walk into the playing XI.”Rajput also called Ishant to tell him that something better was in store for him. “I told him not to get disappointed. He got his chance later when he made a mark in Australia with the Indian team.”Down Under, Rajput was once again with Ishant — this time as stand-in coach of the Indian team. Though there was no whispering campaign or resistance from team mates, but the coach with a know-all smile meant nothing had changed for Ishant since his school days.
